re: 800+ nursing home residents in warehouse in Independence update page 4

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Well, these nursing home people were supposed to be taken care of by the nursing home or their families (depending on the health of the patient). Because they cannot prepare or evacuate themselves. However, it seems as if the nursing homes did not have a proper plan in place (there are rules they are supposed to follow) and the nursing home administrators/owners are useless.

ETA: LDH should really help or make sure nursing homes follow the proper protocol with this especially with what happened after Katrina.

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I know it won’t be well received, but I may be able to provide some speculative context here.

Yes, LDH requires evacuation and transportation plans and signed agreements - for initial licensure and renewal. Annual review of these plans by administrators is also required. LDH checks all this as part of initial and ongoing surveys. In fact, in my world, LDH’s points of top focus are 1) Evacuation Protocol and 2) Medication Management.

Not only that, but destination facilities of record are required in the LDH emergency management portal, esf-8/MSTAT, which enters mandatory reporting period any time a TS/hurricane approaches LA.

The originating facilities had such protocols. Simply put, they wouldn’t have licenses otherwise.

I’ve been helping try to find temporary relocation for industry friends in SELA, contacting my own destination facilities, with whom I’d spoken to last week, as forecasts put my disaster plan in motion. No one can take any of them because they are struggling with their own staffing as it is.

So, as awful as this story is, the reality is that destination facilities are at capacity with COVID-19 and/or dealing with the same staffing shortages as everywhere. To compound matters, the majority of staff decides very quickly their own families and homes take precedence over work/evacuation/residents.

As an administrator, when your destination facilities fall through, your staff bails, and you’re responsible for lives, the most important thing is getting a roof over heads. I have no doubt the conditions were abhorrent and I’m glad LDH stepped in, but, if I’m one of the few that stuck around to at least get residents that far, I’m probably telling the inspector to go frick himself too.